Latino Laugh Off coming to the Capitol Theatre
April 30, 2009
via www.djcooch.com
By JOSEPH TREVIÑO
EL SOL DE YAKIMA
It was all an accident.
In fact, Jorge Aldama, better known by his stage name, DJ Cooch, was until five years ago a disc jockey in Los Angeles before he decided to take the mike as a comedy man. And without planning it, he opened up for Juan Gabriel, one of the biggest names in Latino music and a legend in Mexico.
As Cooch tells it, a group that was going to open for Juan Gabriel at the Universal Amphitheatre didn’t show up, so his manager tapped Cooch to try to entertain the huge crowd for 10 minutes while the singer prepared for one of his most important performances of the year.
“After the show, my manager said, ‘do you realize that you just opened up for Juan Gabriel?’” Cooch said during a phone interview in a road trip from Los Angeles to Yakima. “The next day it was like an addiction.”
On Saturday, Cooch and a group of four comedians — all LA-based— will perform at Yakima’s Capitol Theatre for Latino Laugh Off. The crew includes Luis Villaseñor, Don Hefty, Cisco and Robert Zapata. The show starts at 7 p.m.
Tickets cost $12, $15 and $20 and are available through the Capitol box office, 509-853-2787, or TicketsWest, 800-325-7328, www.ticketswest.com.
To read the full story on Cooch and the Latino Laugh Off, check out tomorrow’s On Magazine.
Aspiring fashion designer debuts collection during benefit show
April 29, 2009
Andy Pinedo works on the wedding dress made of newspaper that is his final design in the Project Runway-style competition of his YVTech class earlier this year. PHOTO BY Sara Gettys / YH-R file
Wondering what to wear in the Palm Springs of Washington?
Think pink — and find inspiration at Eisenhower High School this Friday night, May 1.
Andres “Andy” M. Pinedo, a fashion marketing student at Yakima Valley Technical Skills Center and senior at Ike, is hosting a “Pink Passionistas Fashion Show” at 6:30 p.m. in the school’s cafeteria, 702 S. 40th Ave.
The event is the culmination of his senior project, designing a collection — we’re told it features 18 dresses — and organizing the show, a benefit for ‘Ohana, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital’s mammography and breast health services. Admission is $5.
Earlier this year, Pinedo won Read more
88.1 The ‘Burg celebrates 10 years as your music central
April 28, 2009
Central Washington University’s campus radio station, KCWU-FM 88.1 The ’Burg, is marking its 10th anniversary this Saturday with a street party.
Of course, the CWU radio station has a history that’s more than a decade long, notes Chris Hull, the station’s general manager, who started at The ’Burg as a student in 1992 — when you could only listen to it through cable television.
“We’re celebrating the day it went on the air,” Hull says about the 10-year milestone.
Beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday Read more
Wow! Bam! Zing! Saturday is Free Comic Book Day
April 27, 2009
This Saturday, Ron’s Coin & Book and the Yakima Valley Libraries will once again be getting in on the Free Comic Book Day action.
While supplies last, you can stop in at Ron’s on North Third Street in downtown Yakima or the one on Nob Hill Boulevard and pick from 15 to 20 titles — all free. (Hopefully Ron’s will have the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 25th anniversary reprint.)
Comics will also be available for readers 18 and younger only at all 19 of the Yakima Valley Libraries branches. And it looks like Central City Comics in Ellensburg is also participating.
Now in its eighth year, Free Comic Book Day is an international event held on the first Saturday in May. For more information on the graphics give-away, including a list of the comics available, visit www.freecomicbookday.com.
Blazed & Confused Tour coming to The Gorge
April 27, 2009
The Blazed & Confused Tour — featuring Snoop Dogg, Slightly Stoopid and Stephen Marley — is coming to the Gorge Amphitheatre July 18.
Tickets cost $33.50 and go on sale 11 a.m. Saturday (May 2) through Ticketmaster and LiveNation.com.
Feeling melodramatic? Lower Valley theater troupe casting actors for its summer production
April 27, 2009
The Toppenish Creek Players will hold auditions this week for its summer production of “The Dastardly Dr. Devereaux,” a musical melodrama set in 1918. Performances will be at the Yakama Nation Cultural Heritage Center’s theater in late July.
Auditions are at 7 tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday at the United Methodist Church, 201 N. Beech St. in Toppenish. Parts are available for six female and five male actors, plus extras.
For more information, call Ginny Wells at 509-865-2422 or 509-945-6846.
Head Like A Kite masquerade dance party Saturday
April 25, 2009
Seattle electro-pop outfit Head Like A Kite plays tonight (April 25) at the Yakima Sports Center. But, of course, this is HLAK and you can’t just show up in jeans and a T-shirt.
“We’re throwing a Head Like a Kite Spring Masquerade Ball … “ HLAK frontman Dave Einmo tells me in an e-mail. “Tell your peeps and encourage them to dress up in party, masquerade attire. That means anything but normal clothes. Masks, ballroom dresses and suits, tiger costumes. Elvis jumpsuits. It’s going to be super fun. Boas strongly encouraged … we’ll be debuting some news songs (and new costumes). And likely a few new fog machines.”
Sounds like a (ahem) ball. Show starts around 9 p.m. Cover is $5.
See you there.
— Kim Nowacki
Seattle Shakespeare Company perform ‘Othello’ in Yakima
April 23, 2009
Students from Davis High School watch actors from the Seattle Shakespeare Company, (from left) Chris Maslen, Brenda Joyner and April Wolfe William perform Shakespeare’s “Othello” today, April 23, at Eisenhower’s Little Theatre.
Director George Mount said bringing high theatre across the Cascades is a vital part of what the company does.
“Students in the Northwest should experience classic theatre,” Mount said. “Shakespeare should not just be for the Seattle area.”
The company has visited the Yakima Valley before, having performed “Macbeth” for Sunnyside students two years ago. Plans are being made for the company to perform Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to Yakima area students.
— T. J. Mullinax
A public performance of “Othello” is at 7:30 p.m. tonight, April 23, in Ike’s Little Theatre, 702 S. 40th Ave. Tickets cost $10 and are available through Inklings Bookshop, 509-965-5830, or at www.brownpapertickets.com.
Open the door, get on the floor, everybody walk with dinosaurs
April 23, 2009
Ever since the Yakima Valley SunDome announced that “Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular” would be coming to town, I’ve had that “Walk the Dinosaur” song by Was (Not Was) stuck in my head.
It’s annoying.
One-hit-wonders aside, though, I’m very excited to see “Walking With Dinosaurs,” a mix of animatronics, puppetry, science and theater magic that brings to life 15 full-size dinosaurs, including a terrifying tyrannosaurus rex that’s 18 feet tall at the shoulder. It runs for eight performances beginning tonight at the SunDome.
Here’s all the INFO.
Family and Friends remember local jazz singer Pam Ernst
April 23, 2009
By KIM NOWACKI
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
YAKIMA, Wash. — Beloved local jazz singer Pam Ernst lost her year-and-a- half battle with cancer this past Friday, just a few weeks after fellow musicians banded together to throw a benefit concert in her honor. Ernst died at her Selah home surrounded by family. She was 53.
“She’s just something else,” says a choked-up Bob Waldbauer, who met Ernst more than 10 years ago when the two played in the jazz group Darwin’s New and Used. “I always considered her like a musical sister.”
After Darwin’s New and Used, fronted by Ernst’s late-brother-in-law, Darwin Evans, Ernst and Waldbauer were also bandmates in the jazz group The Joe Brooks Quartet, which featured Ernst on vocals until she could no longer sing because of her chemotherapy.
Joe Brooks, a music professor at Central Washington University, wrote a song for Ernst, which the quartet played during her benefit concert April 5 at The Seasons, and will play again at her memorial service Saturday.
“I’m glad she was able to hear it,” says Waldbauer.
“This has been a hard thing for everybody,” he adds. “Everybody loved her.”
That love and support was evident Read more
Cheers! It’s Spring Barrel Tasting weekend: Let us be your guide to Wine Country
April 22, 2009
Hello vino fans!
It’s Spring Barrel Tasting weekend, and we’ve complied our annual WINE GUIDE just in time.
At last count, 600 wineries call Washington home. The state is also split into 10 American Viticulture Areas, or AVAs, which are federally designated regions with distinct soil and climate features that affect the properties of the grapes grown there.
The wineries in our guide stretch from Naches down to Benton City, and from Mattawa to Goldendale. Read more
‘Teatro Chicana: A Collective Memoir and Selected Plays’ to be read/performed Wednesday at YVCC
April 21, 2009
Three women who decades ago formed part of a San Diego theater group for politically active Mexican-Americans will perform and read from their memoirs at Yakima Valley Community College tomorrow, April 22.
Felicitas Nuñez, Laura Garcia and Sandra Gutierrez were political activists who used theater to address social, gender and political issues of the working class and Chicano movement.
“It’s important we keep in touch with our roots,” said Maria Cuevas, a YVCC instructor who organized the event through the college’s Diversity Series.
The women will read selected materials from the theater group’s collective memoir, “Teatro Chicana: A Collective Memoir and Selected Plays,” as well as speak on theater as an organizing tool and perform skits.
The free event begins at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in YVCC’s student union building. For more information, call Cuevas at 509-574-6800, ext. 3151.
Graciela Beltrán / Tormenta de Durango ticket kick-off today at Mid Valley Mall in Sunnyside
April 21, 2009
Promoters of Graciela Beltrán’s concert at the Yakima Valley SunDome will hold a street party today (April 21) in Sunnyside.
Beltrán, one of the hottest stars of Mexican regional music, plays the SunDome on May 10 along with Yakima’s Tormenta de Durango.
Today’s street party begins at 6 p.m. at the Mid Valley Mall. Latin Family Entertainment, the concert’s promoter, and several sponsors will be on hand to give away tickets. Rancho Grande Western Wear is hosting the party and Martin Ortiz, “El Primo” from KUNW Univision, will be there to emcee the event. There’ll also be a special message sent to the Valley by Beltrán.
Tickets for the concert cost $30 for general admission and $50 for couples and are available through TicketsWest, 800-325-7328, or the State Fair ticket office, 509-248-7160.
Yakima Town Hall Lecture Series announces 2009-10 season
April 21, 2009
The Yakima Town Hall Lecture Series closes out its 36th year of “bringing the outside world to Yakima,” tomorrow, April 22, with television reporter Lisa Ling (pictured), who’ll present “National Geographic Reports: A Global Perspective.”
All Town Hall lectures start at 11 a.m. at the Capitol Theatre and tickets are sold only as a package deal, which means you can’t buy an individual ticket to Ling’s talk. Or, I suppose you can, for $70.
However, you can get a jump on tickets for the 2009-10 season, which are already on sale. The speakers are:
• Sept. 17 — Well-known and witty political analyst and social commentator David Brooks will present “The Spirit of Our Times.”
An author, writer and regular commentator on National Public Radio, CNN’s “Late Edition” and PBS’s “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer,” Brooks examines American society through the lens of pop sociology.
• Oct. 21 — Dan Buettner, a National Geographic explorer, author, Emmy Award winner and long distance cyclist, will present “Blue Zones — Living Longer and Better — What Really Works!” Read more
More summer concerts announced across the state
April 20, 2009
Promoters recently announced concerts at the Maryhill Winery in Goldendale, Marymoor Park in Redmond, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville.
And we’ve got the (ever growing) list of this summer’s outdoor concerts right HERE.
